Question: The new board is trying to cut down unnecessary expenditures, but our homeowners association has a law firm on retainer and a management company on contract. Periodic audits unearthed what looks like duplicate and excessive billings for telephone conversations and communications between the attorney and management company owners and employees, also billings for attorney and management attendance at association activities. We have not asked either the law firm or management company to partake in these communications or activities.

A spokesman for a private law firm representing Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar said Friday that a city investigation into sexual harassment claims against the councilman concluded that the allegations were "baseless. " The investigative report by Batza and Associates, a confidential document provided to the council, has not been released by Huizar to The Times. Huizar's former deputy chief of staff, Francine Godoy, sued him last year, alleging she faced retaliation and discrimination after refusing to provide “sexual favors.” Huizar has said that he and Godoy had a consensual affair and called the accusations “malicious and false.” Godoy initially filed a complaint against Huizar last summer, prompting council President Herb Wesson to convene an investigative committee to look into the allegations and, if necessary, produce a report.

Question: My homeowners association has contracted with the same attorney firm on retainer for more than 25 years. The attorney also receives 40% of any money collected from dues and fines, and the association is demanding more in settlements to recoup its attorney expenses. In response to questions of this practice at a board meeting, the president said that "we have no choice in this economy due to the high number of delinquencies but to use the attorney's services, and all HOAs are doing this now. " Many of my longtime neighbors are walking away from their homes because they can't meet these higher re-payment demands by the board.

The panel charged with looking into sexual harassment claims against Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar has completed its work and forwarded its findings to Council President Herb Wesson. News that the probe is finished comes as the City Council on Friday is scheduled to consider a contract authorizing up to $200,000 in payments to the law firm representing Huizar in a lawsuit filed by his accuser, former Deputy Chief of Staff Francine Godoy. The report, which council members are expected to consider behind closed doors, was prepared by Batza & Associates, an investigative firm that specializes in workplace matters.

Orange County district attorney's investigators have raided the offices of an Upland law firm accused of bullying civic leaders across Southern California in its aggressive representation of police and their unions. The search of Lackie, Dammeier, McGill & Ethir comes after the firm announced last month that it would be dissolving following a series of scandals and a lawsuit filed by Costa Mesa city leaders who alleged that the firm was harassing them for political gain. The firm has represented dozens of police unions in Southern California and has a reputation for its bare-fisted tactics and attacks on city hall.

A Los Angeles County prosecutor sought a job last month for her nephew from a law firm representing potential witnesses in a conflict-of-interest case she was handling, an action that legal experts criticized. Deputy Dist. Atty. Juliet Schmidt, a member of the district attorney's Public Integrity Division, sent an email to the firm offering to provide case law information "that might exonerate" its clients in a malpractice claim before mentioning that her nephew was graduating from Pepperdine Law School.

SACRAMENTO -- Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) has resigned from a law firm that represents the son of a medical firm executive named in an FBI affidavit on the Capitol corruption investigation, an aide said Friday. The leaked affidavit alleges that Michael D. Drobot, the former chief executive of Pacific Hospital of Long Beach, provided $28,000 in bribes to Sen. Ronald Calderon (D-Montebello) in exchange for him advocating for Drobot on workers' compensation bills.

Orange County district attorney investigators have raided an Upland-based law firm accused of bullying civic leaders in Southern California in their aggressive representation of police and their unions. The search of Lackie, Dammeier, McGill & Ethir comes after the firm announced last month that it would be dissolving following a series of scandals and a lawsuit filed by a pair of Costa Mesa council members who alleged the firm was harassing them for political gain. The San Bernardino County Sentinel , which first reported the story, said that investigators left the law office carrying boxes of documents.

Former Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo began a new career Wednesday, joining the Los Angeles law offices of Goodwin Procter LLP. Delgadillo, who left office in June, is joining the firm's 400-lawyer litigation department and also will focus on its public-private partnership work throughout California. Although Delgadillo will be a full-time lawyer, the firm negotiated an arrangement that will allow him to devote more time to his possible run for state attorney general.

The Beverly Hills Board of Education has voted to hire a law firm to conduct an independent review of its relationship with a for-profit summer sports camp for Beverly Hills High School athletes that is owned by the school's principal. The review came in response to an article in The Times that reported that the Beverly Hills Sports Academy, held on campus, is owned by Principal Carter Paysinger and operated by two school employees. The agreement was approved Tuesday evening on a 4-1 vote.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Calm seas returned Wednesday to aid the search for the missing Flight 370, but public protests and the first legal filing on behalf of a passenger hinted at a stormy forecast for Malaysia and its state-supported airline. Executives of Malaysia Airlines said Tuesday that they would pay at least $5,000 to each of the families of the 227 passengers aboard the Boeing 777 that disappeared March 8, but the gesture appeared to provide little comfort to distraught relatives, about 100 of whom marched to the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing, where some clashed with police.

Newsweek's blockbuster claim that it had found the creator of the bitcoin virtual currency is coming under intense scrutiny after a strongly worded denial by a Temple City man whom the newsmagazine dubbed "the face behind bitcoin. " Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto has hired a law firm and issued a statement late Sunday saying he wanted to "clear my name. " When the story was published in early March, Nakamoto, 64, found himself at the center of a media circus as well as a raging online debate about whether he was the programmer who invented the currency that has become a multibillion-dollar global phenomenon.

Former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley returned home Saturday after a one-week hospitalization in an intensive care unit because of an unspecified illness, his law firm said. Feeling ill, the 71-year-old Daley walked straight from a plane into an ambulance after returning to Chicago from a business trip to Arizona on Jan. 31. He underwent several tests, but a spokeswoman for his law firm did not elaborate this week on whether doctors were able to determine what caused Daley to feel disoriented.

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Jerry Brown and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom are among 40 officials receiving warning letters from the state ethics agency after their campaigns received improper contributions from a lobbying firm, representatives said Friday. A firm headed by Kevin Sloat has reached a tentative agreement with the state Fair Political Practices Commission to pay more than $100,000 in fines involving violations of California's campaign finance laws, according to sources familiar with the investigation who are not authorized to speak publicly.

SACRAMENTO -- Three days after a jury found him guilty of eight felony counts, state Sen. Roderick Wright reported Friday that political supporters have helped him raise $248,000 for his legal defense fund. On Tuesday, a Los Angeles jury found Wright guilty of voter fraud and perjury after prosecutors said he lied about living in his Senate district when he ran for office. Wright reported Friday that he had raised $89,200 last year for the account, bringing the total raised since 2011 to $248,000.

If you live in Southern California, you've gotten - or will get - a parking or speeding ticket. It's an immutable law of nature. And in tandem with this natural phenomenon, a cottage industry of legal professionals has taken root to assist people in navigating and, possibly, beating the system. Take, for example, a company called the Ticket Clinic, which has offices throughout the region and boasts that it "may be your best bet for getting your traffic ticket dismissed. " Among other services, the Ticket Clinic says, it can "keep additional points off of your driving record" and "prevent skyrocketing insurance rates resulting from a traffic ticket.

Sy Nazif's new workplace is not your Wilshire Boulevard law firm. The pinstriped suit he wears to court mostly lives on a hanger in an office lacking adornment, unless you consider the helmet, saddlebag and leather jacket stacked on a filing cabinet to be installation art. The Canoga Park firm's seven lawyers prowl their warren of cluttered rooms in jeans and sport shoes, few showing up much before noon to cater to a clientele with few morning persons.

Over four years, Merrell Williams Jr. came up with a number of effective ways to smuggle documents from work. A $9-an-hour paralegal at a tobacco company's law firm in Louisville, Ky., Williams tucked a few memos at a time into a slit he cut in the lining of his overcoat. Sometimes he stashed cigarette marketing plans and medical studies under his shirt, between his skin and an old weight-loss corset. Then there were the days he wore his pants extra baggy, all the better to slide embarrassing correspondence under the waistband.